Jeffrey LaMonde | The Saginaw NewsSaginaw Valley State University student and Bay City resident Ken Lange won first place in an elevator pitch competition at the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship event in Ann Arbor.

Saginaw Valley State University marketing student Ken Lange traveled to Ann Arbor last week for the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship with his classmates.

He returned with a renewed optimism for the docking business he started with his dad a couple of years ago.

Lange, a Bay City resident, was talked into participating in the “elevator pitch” competition by event organizers.

The event, conducted by the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest, a Michigan-based nonprofit education program, included the competition that asks students from colleges and universities throughout Michigan to make a pitch to a panel of experts acting as venture capitalists.

Lange had three minutes to explain an idea for a new business, a time frame akin to having to make a pitch to a potential investor within the time constraints of an elevator ride.

“It’s kind of funny, because I wasn’t planning on doing a pitch at all,” Lange said.

As Lange talked with Amy Klinke from the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship “casually about elevator pitches,” Klinke asked Lange if he had an idea. The 21-year-old senior had pitched his idea for a docking system that could be used at waterfront homes or businesses two years ago at a similar competition and was “apprehensive” about doing it again.

“I asked when it was, and she said it was in 15 minutes,” Lange said. When Klinke said the prize for first place was $1,000, he said, “All right, I’ll do it.”

Before four business experts acting as venture capitalists, Lange explained his idea for the dock, which he says anyone of “modest physical ability” can install in 15 to 20 minutes. Because Lange has not secured a patent, he declined to discuss specifics about the equipment.

Taking home the $1,000 prize was more influence for him to again pursue QuickSet Docks, which he and his father started several years ago.

Lange has begun writing a business plan for the company for a class he’s enrolled in at SVSU.

“I’m hoping to run a feasibility study and see if I can run it as a real business,” he said. “I hope to have a full-size prototype manufactured by the summer.”

Lange hopes to provide an easier solution for families such as his own.

“My family has really always been big into boating,” he said. “Every year, my dad, grandpa and I would launch my grandpa’s dock in front of his home on the Kawkawlin River, and it would be a two-and-a-half- to three-hour process.

“I thought after doing that over and over, is there not some better way of doing this with the technology we have today? Isn’t there some easier way, some dock that is lighter and easier to install and retract?”

The potential entrepreneur swept the annual event’s higher education awards with an accomplished entrepreneur: Ken Kousky, SVSU’s Dow entrepreneur-in-residence and Lange’s professor in the class in which he’s writing the business model.

“I thought he might be rusty on his presentation, but I think he rose to the occasion,” said Kousky, who won the Coach Recognition Award. “We were all impressed.”

Kousky was recognized for his work with three entrepreneurs in the competition and for engaging university students in Michigan’s entrepreneurial community.

“I was a little surprised,” Kousky said, adding that he’s coached small businesses throughout the region for the last five years. “The award was recognition for coaching with those businesses, but they also made a point of referencing engaging students in the process.”

Lange is an example of the university’s entrepreneur program’s success, Kousky said.

“We’re proud of the program, and that’s best seen in the success of our students,” he said. “It’s students like Ken that make this job worthwhile and that can change the economy of mid-Michigan.”

What started for Lange as a “humbling experience, because I thought all the presentations were good,” ended in an opportunity for him to assess his future.

“Now I’ll have a much better grasp on whether or not this company idea is realistic,” he said. “If it is, then it’s about how I’m going to go about reaching the objectives in being successful.”